Original Mac Ad from 1983 Never Aired, Viewable Online 29 Years Later

Here's one for anybody feeling nostalgic this weekend. An unaired commercial for Apple's original Macintosh from way back in 1983 has landed on YouTube courtesy of Andy Hertzfeld, currently a Google software engineer who co-created the Mac nearly three decades ago.

The ad features snippets of interviews from the design team talking up the Mac and why they built it. According to Hertzfeld, the reason it never aired is because "Apple deemed it too self-congratulatory" (yes, we spewed coffee all over our monitor and keyboard as well). The ad was, however, sent to some dealers as part of a promotional package.

One interesting tidbit that stands out from the ad is a Nostradamus-like prediction from Mike Murray, then the Marketing Manager for the Macintosh, who stated, "I think what you're going to see is that the balance of power is going to shift, the balance of power from companies running people to hopefully people running companies." That's something we're starting to see in this age of the Internet, and though it's not necessarily due to the Mac platform or Apple in general, it's an interesting forecast that somewhat accurately predicts where technology has taken us.